If it were me, I would buy the G5 for $250 no questions asked.

I bought a 1.8GHz G5 a few years ago and I loved the machine to death. I sold it to a friend of mine whose financial situation is poor and was still using his Amiga 4000 as his main computer. He loves it and of course is very happy with the speed.

I miss my G5. I miss that it was limited to PPC software, yet ran IMO, the most exotic version of the PPC CPU to ever grace a Macintosh. The G5 was a triumph in terms of not only case design, but a complete architecture over haul for Apple especially when they really needed a high performing system to compete in the workstation market.

Cory, if you want the G5 and have a use for it, then don't bother trying to justify it. Just get the machine.

I know I would.